You could feel the community holding its collective breath last week as Canada’s Enbridge and Houston-based Spectra Energy Corp. announced a $37 billion deal to create North America’s largest energy infrastructure company.
The issue of concern here, of course, is that Houston-based Spectra owns Chatham’s signature corporate citizen, Union Gas.
For more than a century, Union Gas has been a pillar of the community and a source of local pride.
It is good news that the deal was welcomed by both firms.
Indeed, in a business world where bigger is often better, the agreement blends Enbridge’s oil expertise with Spectra’s natural gas capabilities and experience.
World oil markets have been on a roller coaster for several years and it makes sense for Enbridge to have some protection in that volatile sector.
Despite the earlier nonsense from the province about phasing out natural gas, demand for and use of the product isn’t going anywhere.
The fear – and it’s only a fear – is that a new firm taking over may find a way to decrease Union Gas’ presence locally.
That needs to be tempered with the fact that Union Gas was already a subsidiary of a larger firm and has been steadily increasing its investment here with a new learning centre and planned refurbishment of its head office.
The proposed deal must pass the hurdle of U.S. anti-trust and security regulators and Canada’s Competition Act.
Whereas it was once automatic that smaller communities suffered in amalgamations, it is very much a business fact that the lower cost of doing business in places of our size is a plus.
So is the lifestyle offered here at a time when highly skilled employees have the option of working wherever they choose.
For them, bigger isn’t always better.
In other words, we have no guarantees either way, but we do need to relax and breathe.
